Do you sometimes feel there’s a war going on inside of you? As if you have a split personality and they are fighting against each other? One wants to do this and the other wants to do the opposite? If you are a genuine Christian, that should be a common occurrence!

“For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do…. I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” Rom. 7″15, 18.

This is the Apostle Paul, the greatest Christian to ever have lived. He had a divided soul. He knew what was the right thing to do, but he had a tough time carrying it out. He struggled with his sinful nature. As mature a Christian as he was, he couldn’t get rid of his former self completely. There was a war going on inside of him! What he desired to do and what he did were not always consistent.

If you have such struggles, that’s a sign that you are a genuine Christian! If you didn’t have such struggles, either you are in denial or you are not a Christian – for unbelievers wouldn’t struggle with wanting to live a holy life.

It’s only when you desire to live a holy life, but you find yourself unable to do so and yet you are trying and trying again, you understand why Paul said, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24)

What is the answer? “Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (v. 25)

We fail again and again and again and again and again and again…. But Christ is greater than all our failures.

Engage in the war. Do not give up. Keep trying. God is patient. Amen!

PH